Black American Short Stories

The success of John Henrik Clarke'sAmerican Negro Short Stories,first published in 1966, affirmed the vitality and importance of black fiction. Now this expanded edition of that best-selling book, with a new title, offers the reader thirty-one stories included in the originalfrom Charles W. Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the late nineteenth century to the rich and productive work of the Harlem Renaissance: writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright; the World War II accomplishments of Chester Himes, Frank Yerby, and many others; and the later fiction of James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka). Seven additional contributions round out a century of great stories with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Eugenia Collier, Jennifer Jordan, James Allan McPherson, Rosemarie Robotham, and Alice Walker. Dr. Clarke has included a new introduction to this 1993 edition, and a short biography of each contributor. John Henrik Clarkewas born in 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama, and was brought up in Columbus, Georgia. Editor, lecturer, writer, and teacher, Dr. Clarke lived in New York City from 1933 until his death in 1998. The success of John Henrik Clarke'sAmerican Negro Short Stories,first published in 1966, affirmed the vitality and importance of black fiction. Now this expanded edition of that best-selling book, with a new title, offers the reader thirty-one stories included in the originalfrom Charles W. Chesnutt and Paul Laurence Dunbar in the late nineteenth century to the rich and productive work of the Harlem Renaissance: writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright; the World War II accomplishments of Chester Himes, Frank Yerby, and many others; and the later fiction of James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and LeRoi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka). Seven additional contributions round out a century of great stories with the work of Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Eugenia Collier, Jennifer Jordan, James Allan McPherson, Rosemarie Robotham, and Alice Walker. Dr. Clarke has included a new introduction to this 1993 edition, and a short biography of each contributor.

John Henrik Clarke was born in 1915 in Union Springs, Alabama, and was brought up in Columbus, Georgia. Editor, lecturer, writer, and teacher, Dr. Clarke lived in New York City from 1933 until his death in 1998.

Introduction

"The Lynching of Jube Benson," Paul Laurence Dunbar
"On Being Crazy," W. E. B. Du Bois
"The Goophered Grapevine," Charles Waddell Chesnutt
"The City of Refuge," Rudolph Fisher
"The Overcoat," John P. Davis
"Truant," Claude McKay
"A Summer Tragedy," Arna Bontemps
"The Gilded Six-Bits," Zora Neal Hurtson
"Bright and Morning Star," Richard Wright
"The Boy Who Painted Christ Black," John Henrik Clarke
"One Friday Morning," Langston Hughes
"So Peaceful in the Country," Carl Ruthven Offord
"And/Or," Sterling Brown
"Fighter," John Caswell Smith
"The Homecoming," Frank Yerby
"How John Boscoe Outsung the Devil," Arthur P. Davis
"Solo on the Drums," Ann Petry
"Mama's Missionary Money," Chester Himes
"See How They Run," Mary Elizabeth Vroman
"Exodus," James Baldwin
"God Bless America," John O. Killens
"Train Whistle Guitar," Albert Murray
"The Senegalese," Hoyt W. Fuller
"A Matter of Time," Frank London Brown
"Cry for Me," William Melvin Kelley
"Reena," Paule Marhsall
"The Convert," Lerone Bennett, Jr.
"The Winds of Change," Loyle Hairston
"The Screamers," LeRoi Jones
"Sarah," Martin J. Hamer
"The Sky Is Gray," Ernest J. Gaines
"On Trains," James Alan McPherson
"Marigolds," Eugenia W. Collier
"Steady Going Up," Maya Angelou
"Everyday Use," Alice Walker
"The Organizer's Wife," Toni Cade Bambara
"Jesse," Rosemarie Robotham
"The Wife," Jennifer Jordan

Biographical Notes